Objective Week 2 and 3: Mass Media
Today's society has changed largely due to mass media and its penetration of the general United States public. "Adults and teens will spend nearly five months (3,518 hours) in 2007 watching television, surfing the Internet, reading daily newspapers and listening to personal music devices. (medialiteracy.com 2008)" Over 112 million households own a television (NTCA 2007). Political agents know that to get voters to the polls and vote for them, they must shape many of those voter's opinions through the use of mass media. Effective advertising campaigns generally rely on two important strategies: the mode in which political agents submit information to the viewer and the repetition or penetration of the message.
Mass media is generally broken down into two major categories, with various sub categories: print media (newspapers and magazines), broadcast media (TV and radio). The internet is generally seen as a form of broadcast media, but can also be listed as a separate category due to its links to print media (online magazines, etc). Internet media presents a radical departure from the traditional print and broadcast media; political groups now have countless outlets to disseminate their message. YouTube, podcasts, social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace, not-for-profit fact checking sites like factcheck.org, all of these sites change the arena that political agents compete in and change the way public opinions are formed.
The use of these new media outlets generally implement either push or pull marketing. Push marketing is characterized by the agent telling the audience why they should agree with their opinion. Pull marketing is in direct opposition to push marketing. Pull marketing is characterized by the audience telling the political agent what information they want in order to make a decision. Many of these sites promote individuals to share their political opinion with others via online relationships, social networking or non-political interest sites allowing proactive people to pass their opinions others. In essence, these new internet outlets exhibit both push and pull marketing, the public may not even be aware that political factions are "planting" the messages; they may believe that they are directing the process.
Beyond the differences in the type of media (broadcast or print), there are also differences in the audience, the message and the medium that contains it, and how that message is regulated. The regulation and dissemination of information by the media is in constant question, and a multitude of government agencies attempt to provide clear guidelines for those questions. These government regulations are often at odds with the main goal of the media agency - profit. Large media corporations have been known to do anything to make a profit - yellow journalism, muckraking, sensationalization of a story, anything to make their message more palatable to the general public. These corporations must decide what is news worthy, how will this news benefit their sponsors/advertisers, and most importantly keeping their audience. One group is attempting to keep the news as unbiased and truthful to keep the general public informed, while the other group is trying to maximize profits, perhaps altering the truth. This struggle causes a public dilemma.
The Federal Communication Commission (FCC) was founded in 1934 to regulate the telephone industry, but its current jurisdiction includes the broadcast industry. The FCC has passed three rules in an effort to insure the media industry does not interfere with the publics right to truth, but many feel it still isn't enough. The fairness doctrine, the equal opportunities rule, and the reasonable access rules all were designed to regulate media's content. The fairness doctrine maintained that the content on broadcast television be "fair and balanced (MBC 2008)." However, this rule was repealed during the Reagan administration citing the diversity of stations would create a "fair and balanced" marketplace of ideas. The Equal Opportunity Rule extended the idea of a fair and balanced media by regulating candidate airtime. Under this rule, broadcasters are forced to offer equal airtime at equal costs to all candidates. By the FCC's regulation of the media industry, the public access to fair and balanced news has been protected, but with the ever-changing types of media, legislation and regulation is not responding fast enough to insure these standards are met.
The 2008 presidential election can be analyzed to assess if the news media are presenting a truly fair and balanced message. It is difficult to believe that the news could ever be reported in a fully unbiased manner. However, is today's media regulated and broadcasted to come as close to this standard as possible? Is the coverage of the president and the candidates fair and balanced? When analyzing the process of how the president informs the public, it is also understood that the delivery of his information always has a "spin". Any president will try to sway the media to his point of view, hoping that their message will earn them high approval ratings, a clear indicator of the general public's support. These ratings not only tell the president what the public wants, but also their feelings about his actions. The president's press staff is devoted to crafting his message in a way that will show him in a positive light, regardless of content. This message is conveyed each day to a core of White House reporters though a daily briefing. The reporting of the president on a daily basis would make one believe that constant communication with the public will guarantee him a positive rating, but more importantly, allow him to control the amount of time with the public.
This media control is a major reason for the increase of public awareness regarding the president's profile. The president's message is always accessible to the public, allowing him to push his agenda to congress, creating legislation based solely on his view of government policy. Should the media have this great of an affect on public policy? Knowing this, should the president (or any other political agent) strive to control this medium of communication to the populace? In turn, does the media have a responsibility to the people to use this power in a moral way? Is the media truly fair and balanced? All these questions are inherent to understanding the interconnected nature of politics and the media.
Strategies
Students are bombarded with many forms of advertising and messaging on a daily basis. These messages not only affect how they look and characterize themselves but also how they perceive others. The broadcast media is a lens for which our students see the world, a lens that is focused and yet ever changing, often by incoming messages. The type of media has changed over time, so students will use statistical and graphical data to analyze the effects of these changes. Students will also examine the effectiveness of the media to influence political opinion, focusing on how differing contents or amounts of these messages yields varied results.
YouTube, MySpace, and Facebook are just a few Internet based media outlets that students use on a daily basis. Each of these channels provides students with powerful message about society and politics; messages that have the ability to shape and change viewpoints. Through the critical analysis of these media outlets and the political agendas and messages they convey, students will become "informed skeptics," looking at the media with a curious eye. Students will be able to view the 2008 presidential election from an objective, informed position as a political analyst.
A few private corporate conglomerations own the countless television media outlets viewed by the general public. Over the past eight years, the FCC has lowered its restrictions of media ownership, and corporate conglomerates have bought up most of the independent news outlets in cities across the nation, giving the power to broadcast media to a handful of companies. Through research students will have a better understanding of the history of this ownership change, but also the effects of the media being in the hands of a few. Students will explore questions of media ownership such as: what merits "news," the affect of news on the public, is the news sensationalized, are profit and responsibility balanced, and finally how has society's need for immediate coverage changed the accuracy of the news. Students will be able to research these questions and discuss and defend their findings to their peers.
The president's media coverage has evolved since the creation of the motion picture camera and home television. The most famous example of this changes the 1960 Presidential debate between Senator John F. Kennedy and Vice President Richard Nixon. Students will watch the debate as if they were television viewers in 1960, analyzing what factors could have launched Senator Kennedy to the presidency over the more popular sitting Vice President Richard Nixon. Students will also examine the amount of media coverage the modern president has by researching the presidential press briefing process and identifying the roles and responsibilities of the Press Secretary. Students will read excerpts of Scott McCellan, former Press Secretary for President George W. Bush to understand how a president and press secretary communicate and devise plans to address the public on a myriad of issues.
Many politicians will first decide their position on an issue, polling the public's opinion afterwards. Politicians can use the data from these opinion polls to manufacture a message that the public will endorse, regardless of the actual content. The Terry Schaivo case of 2005 is an example of how the media's coverage directly affected the public's opinion and directly affected their politician's actions. Politicians watched the medias coverage of the day-to-day goings on with Terry Shaivo and reacted based on local public opinion polling data. Is this the true way democracy should work? Should politicians push their political agenda on the public? Students will listen to a National Public Radio Show podcasted on NPR's website with Terry Shaivo's husband explaining how the media and politicians affected legislation affecting his wife's right to die. Students will take a position not on the legal aspect of the case, but on whether or not the media's coverage affected the political actions of each representative district to act on this case.
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